Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-28

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The chart below shows how frequently people in the USA ate in fast food restaurants between 2003 and 2013.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

 

Student answer (Band 6.0)

The bar chart compares how often US citizens eat fast food at restaurant from the year 2003, 2006 and 2013.

Overall, eating fast food once a week or once or twice a month is the most common pattern in all three years. In contrast, only a small proportion of people ate fast food every day or never did so.

In 2003, approximately 17% of citizen ate fast food several times a week. While the percentage of eat fast food once a week was significantly climb to 30%. However, guests who eat fast food once or twice a month almost remains stable. By 2006, eating once a week became the most common frequency, at roughly 33%, while the proportion eating several times a week decrease to 20%.

In 2013, the percentage of eating fast food once or twice a month rose significantly to 33%, making it the highest figure of that year. Meanwhile, the proportion eating once a week decline to around 28%.

Finally, only about 3-5% of people ate fast food every day or never ate it, and these figures changed vey little between 2003 and 2013.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The student successfully covers all parts of the task, presenting an overview of the main trends and making relevant comparisons across the years 2003, 2006, and 2013. The main features, such as the dominance of eating fast food once a week or monthly, and the very low figures for daily consumption or never eating fast food, are clearly identified and supported with accurate data from the chart (e.g., noting that once a week was around 33% in 2006 and that monthly consumption rose to 33% in 2013). The response meets all requirements for a well-structured Academic Task 1 summary, providing a clear overview without getting bogged down in every single data point, thus achieving a solid Band 7.0 for Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response is organized into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introductory sentence, followed by an overview paragraph, body paragraphs detailing the years, and a concluding remark on the extremes. Cohesive devices are used to signal shifts in time and contrast, such as 'Overall', 'In contrast', 'By 2006', and 'Meanwhile'. However, paragraphing could be slightly more polished, and there are minor issues with logical progression within sentences (e.g., 'While the percentage of eat fast food once a week was significantly climb'). Nevertheless, the overall arrangement is coherent with a clear progression, meriting a Band 6.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, successfully employing terms such as 'proportion', 'frequency', 'stable', and 'significant'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as 'percentage of eat fast food' instead of 'percentage of people who ate fast food', 'significantly climb' instead of 'climbed significantly', and 'almost remains stable' instead of 'remained almost stable'. There is also a spelling typo ('vey little'). These lexical inaccuracies restrict the score to a Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing subordinating clauses ('While the percentage of...'). However, grammatical control is inconsistent, featuring several prominent errors in tense, verb forms, and word formation. Examples include 'eat fast food at restaurant' (pluralization and article omission), 'percentage of eat fast food' (incorrect verb form), 'decrease to 20%' (tense inconsistency with past-tense narrative), and 'decline to around 28%' (incorrect tense). Because these errors occur frequently and sometimes cause momentary hesitation, the response fits the descriptor for Band 5.5.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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